Activity Types and Conditions

Activity measured whenever the matter window is opened and information is entered into any of the fields under Matter Details. 

This Activity is always tracked; however, you can choose not to include it in AutoTime. It will be recorded as Matter Review in Smokeball.   

Activity measured when a Word, Excel, or PDF document is created, edited, or opened for review or preview. It will be logged as <<Document Title>> created>><<Document Title>> created, then edited, <<Document Title>> reviewed, or <<Document Title>> edited in Smokeball.

The timer starts when you open a document from Smokeball.  As long as it is the active window and you are clicking, scrolling, typing or moving your mouse over the document, the timer is going. 

If you pause one of those activities for more than the duration of your firm's default billing units (1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or custom), the timer will pause.  Upon resuming activity, the timer will resume.  Closing the active window or saving and closing the document will stop the timer immediately. 

Note: As it’s not legal for firms to charge for time spent on invoicing, PDFs opened from the Billing > Invoice folder in Documents on a matter will not be billed.

Time recorded is reviewing any file in File Preview for more than 30 seconds. All File Preview entries will be entered as a document.  As long as the preview is open, you are clicking, scrolling, typing or moving your mouse over the document, the timer is going. 

If you pause one of those activities for more than the duration of your firm's default billing units (1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or custom), the timer will pause.  Upon resuming activity, the timer will resume.  Closing the preview or changing to another document for review will stop the timer immediately. 

Activity measured when a new memo is saved to a matter, viewed, or edited.

If you pause one of those activities for more than the duration of your firm's default billing units (1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or custom), the timer will pause.  Upon resuming activity, the timer will resume.  Closing the active window or saving and closing the memo will stop the timer immediately.

This will be logged as Memo edited – <<Memo Title>> or Memo created – <<Memo Title>> in Smokeball.

Note: Activity on old versions of memos can only be entered manually. Learn more about old memos. 

Activity is measured whenever reviewing or working (entering responses or using internally) in an intake form.

Calendar events in Smokeball that occur in the past are shown as activity items. If the event time and duration change, these will be updated in the activity duration.

This will be logged as <<Event Name>> attended in Smokeball.

Activity recorded when a user completes a Task from the task list, daily digest, or mobile app and checks off the task as completed.

This will be logged as <<Name of Task>> in Smokeball.

An action to create an item that will operate as a task.

This will be logged as <<Name of Activity>> in Smokeball.

Activity recorded from the emails viewed in the preview pane or if popped out from Outlook. This activity is grouped daily per person and per matter as emails are sent or received.  
You can group by subject line per person, per day, per matter for AutoTime (Settings). 

In order to be recorded, a matter needs to be tagged to the email. Time will not be logged if the email is not associated with a matter prior to closing. 

The timer starts when you open an email or move your mouse over the email in the preview pane.  As long as the email is the active window and you are clicking, scrolling, typing or moving your mouse over the email, the timer is going. 

If you pause one of those activities for more than the duration of your firm's default billing units (1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or custom), the timer will pause.  Upon resuming activity, the timer will resume.  Closing the active window will stop the timer immediately

Emails reviewed for a minimum of 10 seconds are recorded as activity. If an email is reviewed again within a 10-minute window, the accumulated time will be applied. 

This will be logged as emails sent/reviewed regarding <<Email Subject Line>>.

As selected in Billing Units

Each item in a subject line group is rounded up to 1 minute

Ring Central and Zoom calls are recorded for incoming and outgoing calls for users using RingCentral or Zoom integration. RingCentral or Zoom calls will be logged as completed tasks in Activity.

If a phone number is associated with a contact and matter, this task will automatically be added to the matter.

If the phone number is not associated, the call will still be logged. Users can assign the activity to a matter based on the caller ID information.

This will be logged as Phone Call through Ring Central in Smokeball.

Activity recorded when a user spends a minimum of 30 seconds sending a message or previewing a file in Communicate. Activity is also recorded for spending a minimum of 10 seconds reading a message in Communicate.

The timer starts when you click on the message.  As long as it is the active window and you are clicking, scrolling, typing or moving your mouse over the message, the timer is going. 

If you pause one of those activities for more than the duration of your firm's default billing units (1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or custom), the timer will pause.  Upon resuming activity, the timer will resume.  Closing the active window or message will stop the timer immediately 

If the client opens the file while reviewing, an entry will be created for the Communicate portion of the time and the Document review portion of the time. 

Communicate activity is also tracked from Mobile app.

This will be logged as X messages sent/received or <<Document Title>> reviewed in Smokeball.

Rounded up to the nearest minute

Activity recorded when working under the Matter Archie tab in the Smokeball desktop app.

For Activity purposes, user interactions with Archie include moving the mouse into the Archie UI (the chat panel, not the history panel) and clicks, scrolls, or typing while the Archie UI has focus. 

Activity will continue to record until the Archie tab is closed or the matter window is closed. However, idle time will begin if no activity in the Archie tab is detected.

In addition, all full length activities under 30 seconds will be discarded. 

Rounded up to the nearest minute